Leslie Dierauf, Center Director

Dr. Leslie Dierauf is the Director of the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Leslie is a wildlife veterinarian and conservation biologist, who has worked in Federal service since 1990, first as a science advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, and then for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducting habitat conservation planning for threatened and endangered species in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, including partner and stewardship efforts with the private sector. In late 1998, she was honored by the profession of veterinary medicine with the American Veterinary Medical Association's National Animal Welfare Award. She was also a Congressional Science Fellow (American Association for the Advancement of Science) in Washington DC in 1990. Prior to going to Washington, D.C. in 1990, for 17 years, Leslie practiced small animal emergency (nights and weekends) and marine mammal medicine (days) in northern California. In 2001, Leslie published a second edition of Marine Mammal Medicine, a world-renowned, one-of-a-kind 1,100 page textbook working with 66 contributors and 100 peer reviewers.

Currently, Leslie sits on the Consortium for Conservation Medicine's Executive Committee, the SeaDoc Society Advisory Board, the University of California - Davis's, Wildlife Health Center Board, the U.S. Animal Health Association's Executive Board, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Fish and Wildlife Health Committee, the U.S. Geological Survey's Human Health Coordinating Committee and the U.S. Department of the Interior's Partnership and Collaboration Team. She served for 8 years on the American Veterinary Medical Association's Environmental Affairs Committee, and for 8 years on the National Marine Fisheries Service's Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Working Group, and co-founded a non-profit membership and educational group, the Alliance of Veterinarians for the Environment.